


Bloody Mary and the Seven Worlds

by KatArturus



Series: The Ballad of Karnation Lee [4]
Category: Bloody Mary (pulp), Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Teen Titans (Comics), The Apparition (2012), The Lone Ranger - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 05:29:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17016612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatArturus/pseuds/KatArturus
Summary: Atom Bezecny's pulp hero Bloody Mary and her companion Karnation Lee investigate the mysterious events surrounding the Stroud family, who are haunted by a hideous half-human, half-vulture creature. Their adventure will take them farther and deeper into the Multiverse than they ever expected!





	Bloody Mary and the Seven Worlds

 

_Cornwall, 1965_

 

There was a knock at the front door of Stroud Manor. Slowly, Brian Stroud rose and walked with great effort to the door. He had been warned by his nephew, Eric, to be distrustful of people at the doors or windows, but he couldn't allow himself to be rude. He peered through the eyepiece, but it was too muddy to really see anything through. He figured Eric was just exaggerating things—so he hauled the door open. Standing before him were two people he'd never seen before. A man and a woman, both fortyish, and dressed well. The man looked to be a little worn out, perhaps a little hungover. His glassy eyes were locked in deep, purplish sockets. He had an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and his short hair was slicked back. He wore a clean white suit, with a white shirt and tie beneath it. Attached to his lapel was a carnation. The woman was black; she wore a long blue dress tied around the waist with a pale ribbon. Her long hair trailed curly down her back, and her face was kind, a contrast to that of her companion.

 

“Who are you?” said Brian Stroud. “Can I help you?”

 

“Mr. Stroud, my name is Francine Rainsford,” the woman said. “This is my assistant, Mr. Karnation Lee. We heard you've been having some bird trouble.”

 

 

WORLD 1 –

THE VULTURE

 

 

“How did you hear about that? Did my nephew tell you?” Stroud asked.

 

“We have an inside source,” Francine said. “We know many of the details of your problem. You are being threatened by a creature which your nephew believes to be an incarnation of an Easter Island god. Is that correct?”

 

“Well, how did you know?”

 

“Again. Mr. Stroud. We have an inside source.”

 

“I-I see. Yes, Eric just got done telling me about it. Something about a terrible scientific accident—I can't claim to understand it myself. It seems to be some blend of mysticism and laboratory work. It doesn't make a terrible lot of sense. But Eric is still here, he's with my niece, his wife Trudy. If you're willing to disclose more about yourselves, I'm sure he'd be willing to grant you an interview.”

 

“You keeping goin' back to that one topic, Mr. Stroud,” said the one called Karnation Lee, “but we still ain't telling you where we get our scoops.”

 

“But are you reporters? Police?”

 

“Yes, we're with Scotland Yard,” Francine said.

 

“Interesting, given that you're Americans.”

 

“It's a special division,” Lee said.

 

“Okay. Well, come in. The local police were no help, maybe you can be of some assistance. Uh, if you're willing to believe in a few of my nephew's kooky ideas.”

 

“Kooky ideas are something of our specialty,” Francine said.

 

Brian led them through the pale-colored entrance hall into the spacious, old style living room. A man roughly around their age was speaking to a woman who looked a little younger than he. He turned slowly to face his wife's uncle and the two guests. “Eric, this is Francine Rainsford and Karnation Lee,” said Brian Stroud. “They're from Scotland Yard. They've heard about our situation and want to help.”

 

“It's interesting,” Eric said. “I put in no call to Scotland Yard.”

 

“We were alerted by the local police,” Francine said.

 

“Something about a vulture? With a human head and hands?” Lee asked.

 

Eric Lutens was silent for a moment.

 

“It's true. I've deduced it. I was just explaining it all to Trudy. I believe that someone somewhere has committed a scientific atrocity, which has caused them to merge with Reál's pet vulture and...”

 

“Slow down,” Francine interrupted. “Who's this 'Reál'? What vulture?”

 

“Yes, you're right. I'll start at the beginning. A few nights ago a Mrs. West witnessed the vulture-creature emerging from the grave of Francis Reál. Reál was an 18th Century necromancer who was an enemy of the Stroud family. Supposedly he was buried with a fortune in gold. I believe someone tried to steal that gold using a teleporter device.”

 

Francine snorted. “Surely that's—that's a little far-fetched.” She started laughing, and Lee laughed with her. His laughter, at least, was definitely fake to Eric.

 

“But it's possible, with atomic energy. It was proven by Dr. Delambre about ten years ago. And just a year or so ago, here in Britain, it was proven again by Dr. Paul Steiner. The culprit may be using stolen technology.”

The pair had stopped laughing.

  
“I think the teleporter must have accidentally fused its user with Reál's pet vulture, which was buried with him, creating a monster. Perhaps some of Reál himself was mixed in. Hence this creature's threatening overtures to my wife's family. They are all cursed by Reál: from the oldest to the youngest they shall all die.”

 

“Why would Reál need to be part of this? How would that even be possible? I don't think the teleporter would, y'know, jumpstart his consciousness back to life,” Karnation Lee said. “Maybe the person who got fused in hates the Strouds too.”

 

“I don't suppose that this necromancer had any modern-day descendants who would be interested in avenging his ancestor?” Francine asked.

 

“Well, there's Dr. Koniglich, but he's a family friend,” Brian Stroud said.

 

“I see. And where does this Dr. Koniglich live?” inquired Francine.

 

“I can get you his address. But he's quite harmless. He couldn't hurt anybody.”

 

“People by that description are usually the people to watch out for, in my experience,” said Francine.

 

As Brian found a piece of paper to write down the address, Eric Lutens looked her over. “Haven't I seen your photograph before? Ten years back, were going around with that Bart Hill character, the Daredevil, in America?”

  
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Francine grinned. “Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to go ask this Dr. Koniglich some questions.”

 

“Ms. Rainsford?” Francine was just turning from Eric when he spoke up. “If Hans—if Dr. Koniglich _does_ have the device I specified—an atomic teleport engine—”

 

“Oh, trust us, you'll be the first to know,” said Lee with a chuckle. And he led Francine away from the living room, back to the outside of the house.

 

As soon as they were both outside they breathed a simultaneous sigh of relief.

 

“That was a hard facade to keep up. I've never liked people with big houses,” Francine said.

 

“Yeah, me neither. If you wasn't here, Mary, I'd have nicked some of their silver.”

 

“You're lucky you didn't try when I _was_ here. Thunderbolt Jim Lang showed me enough sleight-of-hand that I'd have caught you right away.”

 

“Thunderbolt was a legend, even in my time. But there have been a lot of tricks dreamed up between his day and the 41st Century.”

 

“I suppose.” They began to walk away from the house, hoping that the people inside wouldn't notice they lacked a car.

 

Francine had stashed a mirror behind a tree on the Stroud property. It was their door to the Mirror-Realm. Ignoring what would otherwise be an oddity, they entered the Realm, by stepping into the mirror. As this happened, Francine's dress began dark and torn, and her skin became corpse-gray. Her brown eyes became seas of white, from which blood flowed—her hair became tangled and ratty. She was the perfect ghost. Her touch kept Lee safe from the icy cold of the Mirror-Realm around them.

 

“Where are we going, Bloody Mary?” Lee asked. “And what was the point of all that? I already told you, I know from the history that Dr. Koniglich _was_ mutated by a teleporter accident, and that he's the one who's gonna kill Brian Stroud and his family.”

 

“We needed to know what sort of machine it is that Koniglich is using,” said Mary. “I wasn't expecting a nuclear-powered teleporter, but it _is_ possible.”

 

“This case is pretty crazy. Atomic energy, gold coins, curses, the gods of Easter Island, necromancers...like, what the hell?”

 

“We just have to focus on stealing and destroying his machine while he's out trying to kill Eric and his wife.”

 

“What about stealing it for our own purposes?” Lee tugged at his collar with a loose finger. “C'mon, Mary, it's been awhile since I got to hold a nice sweet bit of stolen machinery. You know how much I want it.”

“Hold your horses. You're just antsy because I made you quit smoking.” She had the mirror now. Koniglich's laboratory beckoned to them. “Ready?”

 

“Ready.”

 

“Let's go.”

They crossed through, using the reflection on one of Koniglich's test tubes. The large, pale, sterile space could have only been more intimidating if its owner was present. Both Lee and Bloody Mary knew that he posed as a sickly man, who could only walk with twin canes, to conceal the fact that his body was a mass of feathers, and his legs, the talon-tipped legs of a three-toed bird. Remembering the case of Seth Brundle from a jaunt to the 1980s, Mary knew that Koniglich was likely in horrible pain, which would worsen as the genes that had been fused into him slowly overtook his natural DNA. In some ways she wanted to help him as much as she wanted to help the Strouds. Then she remembered that he was going to murder two of the Strouds. Her sympathies evaporated.

 

She was beginning to sicken of traveling with Lee.

 

He wasn't her first time-traveler. Sometimes, Professor Darwood would bring back disturbing details of the future as well. But he was new to the practice; Karnation Lee had time-travel in his blood. Hailing from an alternate reality where Tsuu-Aas never arose to the destroy the world, he was born in an era where her bones weren't even dust anymore. And unlike Darwood, his cynicism was deep and true. He had explained to Mary:

 

“You now know that two of the Strouds get murdered by the Vulture. You can't change that fact, or the Golden Guardians will detect it.”

 

“Don't lecture me on the Golden Guardians,” Mary said. “I've run into them enough times already.”

 

“Then you should know that we can't save Brian Stroud or his brother. The Golden Guardians would get us.”

 

“Then why didn't you just avoid telling me that the Strouds die? Then I could save them and the Guardians wouldn't come for me because, from my subjective point in time, I never contradicted the timeline!”

 

He'd gone silent then. That was his way of avoiding problems. Pretend they don't exist. Don't even bother hoping they'll get better. Life is a closed fist.

 

He reminded her of her old enemy, the Scandium Conqueror. She wondered if maybe he would meet the same fate. She hoped not. It was bad enough when Scand dragged Darwood down with him.

 

But even if Lee _seemed_ to die, she'd probably never know if he actually got away. He had traveled with other folks before. Doctor Omega, the Master, Bonzo Mayfair, Young, Blake, Alice, and Solomon—those were the names he'd given. He'd left Blake at least by faking his death. And he'd told Mary to her face that he'd do the same thing if it came down to it.

 

She'd had her own Blake, Blake Hart. She'd seen traces of darkness in him but by the time he'd let his psychic powers get out of control she could do nothing. He'd become a monster and it took all she and Daredevil had to bring him down. He reminded her of Ormond Murks, her friend who betrayed her and died at the hands of the law. She'd sworn off teaming up with crooks every again, but then she was stuck with Thunderbolt for a while—

 

She was too young to be stuck in the past. All she knew now was that she couldn't save the Strouds, no matter how hard she tried. Not unless she wanted a fight with the Golden Guardians of Time.

 

“Sadly, I have no clue what this machine is gonna look like,” Lee was saying.

 

“Me neither,” Mary replied. “But we need to get it before Koniglich gets back.”

 

As she said this, they both heard the sounds of something heavy falling over, followed by an unusual curse. Mary's hearing was sharper than Lee's, so she spotted the source immediately. There was a dark shape trying to escape the lab.

 

The door he was moving towards was metal and reflected quite well. Bloody Mary dove into one of the test tubes and emerged from the shimmer of the door, cutting him off. He rose slowly from his hunched position, revealing himself to be a pale blond man in dark clothes. His haunted eyes stared at Mary as he raised what looked to be a small tree branch at her. She dove for him, intending to pin him to the ground.

 

“Impedimentia.”

 

Mary stopped in midair—she could her momentum melt. The blond man swatted the stick to the side and Mary followed where it pointed. Her momentum was regained in an instant as her ghostly form slammed hard against the floor.

 

“Alright, you screwball.” Mary's attacker turned on his heels. In Karnation Lee's hand was a small laser-pistol. “Both of 'em, up where the sky is.”

 

Instead of raising his hands, the dark-clothed simply spoke another word.

 

“Expelliarmus.”

 

There was a pop of lightning around Lee's fingers and the gun flew out of his hand. He raised both his hands then, keeping up his poker-face.

 

“Who are you?” Bloody Mary asked.

 

“My name is...” And he looked down. The name he gave, they knew then, was sure to be a fake. At once Mary could sense there was a strong authority holding the stranger back from speaking—something he feared. Yet Mary also sensed that the thing he feared was less than death. Being fired, maybe.

 

“My name is Baddefayth Murtlock.”

 

“Bad Faith?” Mary chuckled.

 

“Yes. I was originally Patrick Murtlock but now that I'm in the '60s I have to pose as his father.”

 

“'Now' that you're in the '60s,” Lee echoed.

 

“I'm a time traveler. But I can tell that _you're_ magical, at least.” And he pointed his stick at Mary now.

 

“Please don't aim that thing towards me.”

 

“Ohh...sorry.” He cleared his throat. “As Patrick Murtlock, in the early 2000s, I was helping a group of college students reenact the supernatural 'Charles Experiments' from the '70s, for my own goals. But then my son stole my time-tur—my time-machine. And I had to chase him to the '60s to get it back. I've been stuck here ever since, posing as my alter ego's father. I don't suppose you know of a young man named Scorpius Murtlock? I'm afraid he's fallen in with the wrong crowd.”

 

“Never heard of him, sorry,” Mary said.

 

“Well. I was told by Dr. Koniglich that he had clues on Scorpius' whereabouts. It was a trick—he actually wanted me to use my magic to prime his engine.”

 

“I thought that thing was supposed to be atomic powered,” said Mary.

 

“That's part of it, but there's another power source. I'm sorry, this isn't my field. I don't know what kind of magic it is. And I'm sure you hate that as much as Koniglich does. But this is complicated—it's from the future.”

 

“Can you show us the engine?”

 

He said nothing. He only walked over to one of the lab desks, which was covered in a black cloth. He jerked it away, revealing a glinting silver box.

 

At once the cigarette dropped from Karnation Lee's mouth. “Aw, shit.”

 

“Karnation! Language!” Mary barked.

 

“Sorry. But this is bad, Mary. This is from the future, like that kid said, but this is...whew. This must be at least from the 32nd Century. It was being dropped off in the mid 30th last I saw it. But in the 22nd Century—when we were working on it...”

 

“We?”

 

“Michael Zephyr and I. We built this...Miracle Machine. The Universe Bender, he called it. It's part atomic, but only just.”

 

“Well, you should know what's magic about it,” Mary said.

 

“Except I don't. If there's magic in this, it's something Michael put in. Or it was added later when we took it to the Controllers.”

 

“Controllers?”

 

“They're aliens. It's a long story, Mary.”

 

“No doubt. Well, we should find out what this thing can _really_ do. You called it a Miracle Machine, a Universe Bender, but that's a strange name for a teleport device.”

 

“It's not a teleporter. It's a reality-warper. Theoretically this machine can do anything.”

 

“Anything? With 22nd Century technology? Wow, we hit singularity fast without Tsuu-Aas, didn't we?”

 

“Building this thing taught me sciences that've left scars in my brain. It's an evil thing, Mary. We should try to destroy it.”

 

“Without knowing what such destruction will do?” she said, exasperated. “Mr. Murtlock. You need to tell me about your magic.”

 

“I-I can't.”

 

“Why?”

“Because there are laws. I'm sworn to secrecy.”

 

“And these laws still apply forty-odd years before your time?”

 

“More extremely so.”

 

Karnation Lee stared at the machine for some time. Then he sighed.

 

“Hey, Mary? I'm sorry.”

 

Bloody Mary's eyes widened. “Lee, don't.”

 

But it was too late. He dove for his gun, which Baddefayth had knocked aside, and was on it before Mary could get him. Then he spun and fired straight at the heart of the machine.

 

The bolt hit with a loud burst of sound and blue light. The machine looked to be undamaged...at first. However, a pale blue light began to pool around it, emerging from its core. There was a loud buzzing noise which sounded like a fan clogged with dust. Then, in the midst of the pale light, there was a plume of smoke.

 

“Uh-oh,” Mary said.

 

“I think the situation calls for stronger words,” mused Baddefayth. “Get ready.”

 

“So, uh.” Lee cracked his knuckles. “What'd I do?”

 

“You damaged the core,” Baddefayth said. “We're going to be exposed to a sea of possibilities. There's no guarantee we'll make it back alive.”

 

“I hate being sent to other worlds with no guarantee of making it back,” Bloody Mary said. She looked at her friend then, if she could call him that. “Really, Lee, I need to stop letting it happen.”

 

 

WORLD 2 –

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE (YOU KNOW THE REST)

 

 

“Goddamn you, Butch Kavanaugh!”

 

Bloody Barrel Mary spat on the ground and slapped horse-hide. Her bleeding eyes stared out over the dusty plains. In the distance was a high mesa; the sun had a long time yet before it turned the sky orange. In hand was one of her namesakes, the snub-nosed revolver she used to take care of crooks like Kavanaugh. She fired a shot. The blazing lead swooped heavy past Kavanaugh's flank but she'd missed again.

 

Shoot! She never missed!

 

She tried to press her horse, Meara, to speed things up a bit, but the poor girl was going as fast as she could. Somehow, Kavanaugh's horse was just faster.

 

Her black cloaks billowed in the wind. Out here on the open plain there were no surfaces for her to use. She couldn't access her Realm. She couldn't...

 

Wait. What Realm? The Mirror-Realm didn't exist in—

 

She urged her horse to stop. She knew that Kavanaugh was getting away, but for a few flickering moments she had no idea who Kavanaugh was. Something was wrong. She—was in the wrong place—

 

Just then, a shot rang out. Mary watched as the rider in the distance fell violently from his horse, passing under its galloping hooves for a gory moment. Then he was dead.

 

A stranger walked out from behind a tall outcropping of rocks. No, not a stranger—she knew that face. He had a cigar on this world, and he wore brown, with a small dark bowler cap, but the flower on his suit was a carnation.

 

“Lee!” she cried out, riding towards him. He spun his gun around his finger and slipped into his holster.

 

“That'll teach that varmint,” he murmured.

 

“Varmit?” Bloody Mary laughed. “Don't tell me your brain's getting stuck in the times, Lee...”

 

“The name Lee has a different meaning in these times,” he said.

 

“Don't remind me,” she replied. “The Old West. I suppose I should stay out of sight lest someone gets grabby.” She sighed. “I can't wait to throw these guys' descendants in jail.”

 

“I wonder where Mr. Murtlock ended up in this cowboy world.” Lee watched the prairie dust form high clouds in the sky.

 

Mary took out a small hand-mirror. “We can find out,” she said.

 

She dove in, taking him with her. She looked through all the mirrors available to her on a local level, until she saw his face. He was shaving his beard in a cramped bathroom. What was odd was that he was dressed in the clothing of a priest.

 

Then he saw her face. “Ahh!” he cried. “Get back, demon!”

 

She brought Lee with her through the mirror, crossing over into Murtlock's bathroom. He stared at them.

 

“Wh-who are you...?” he whispered. “You look so familiar...” And he placed his hands on his face. “No. No, it's a demon's trick...putting false memories in my head.”

 

“Murtlock, it's me. It's Mary. And Karnation Lee, remember?”

 

“I-I...”

 

Then Mary spoke from a deduction she'd made, based on prior external knowledge.

 

“You went to school in northern Scotland, didn't you? Got there by a train from King's Cross, from a secret place near the legendary Platform 13. I've heard of this school.”

 

Then, with a flash of anger on his face, Murtlock said, “How could a muggle like you possible know?!”

 

And he was himself again.

 

“I don't know if I qualify as a—what did you say, a muggle? I have magic, just as you do,” Mary said.

 

Murtlock was silent. “In any case, when I first heard that word,” Mary said, “I heard it when a soothsayer whispered to me of humanity's bad futures. A nuclear war, which led to an age of magic. The word 'muggle' was significant there.”

 

“There are stories of creatures by that name. Scamander indicates they're also called trolls, or goblins. Or Tcho-Tcho.” Murtlock shook his head, his mind still scrambled by the effects of the machine. “William Stanton corroborated his studies.”

 

“Hey, Mary,” Lee said. “How 'bout filling me in on blond boy's backstory.”

 

“No, it's a—” But Murtlock cut himself off. “You won't tell any other muggles, right?”

 

“I won't,” Mary said. “Your world is safe, Murtlock.”

 

Murtlock nodded.

 

“During one of my trips to the future, I met a young woman named Vane, who claimed to be descended from Lord Peter Wimsey. She directed me to a woman named Renault. She was the granddaughter of Madeline Renault, the niece of the infamous scientist Dr. Robert Renault. But she used the name of her great-grandfather Leo. Her name was Granger.”

 

Murtlock shook his head. “Do you know her? This Renault woman?” Mary asked.

 

The wizard maintained his silence.

 

“Well, it doesn't matter. We need to get out of the Old West.”

 

“Amen to that,” Lee said.

 

“I'll be able to help you in a moment,” Murtlock said. “I'm still regaining memories, I—” He paused. “You know. I wonder if memory has something to do with getting out of this place...”

 

As soon as he said that, the last of his old life snapped into place. He tore the pastor's collar from his neck and as it fell to the ground, he let go of memories of dusty tavern sermons to the local prostitutes and gunfighters, warning them to abstain from drink. Too often did those little parties lead to his having to sling lead from a pistol all his own.

 

Wide-eyed, he began to fade away.

 

For Mary and Lee, the transition was much more abrupt.

 

 

WORLD 3 –

DUCK DYNASTY

 

 

Pretty Mary Sunshine took a drag from the comically large bong The Duck had prepared for her. Around her was a van Gogh display come to life; blooming sickly colors bursting fresh out of unseen sexual vortices. Had old Vinny v G ever dropped acid? There were debates about his use of psychedelics. Right now Pretty Mary was thinking about eating paint, to see if it gave her the same effect it'd granted him. The Duck was laughing loudly.

 

“Can't remember if I got this shit off Howard or Donald or Daffy or—or was it ol' Isenbaum...?” He chuckled. “Or maybe it was the scruffy beard dude in the van, with the dog. 'Like, don't say nothin', man, or the cops will, like, take my dog biscuits!'” He broke off into further laughter.

 

Mary looked down at her hand, which left tell-tale spatial trails behind it as it flittered through the air. “This is ridiculous,” she said. “Marijuana and even hashish can't cause LSD-like effects. I must be in another dimension. In fact that other world must have been another dimension, because I know he didn't kill Butch Kavanaugh...” She pointed a three-handed hand at Flower, her companion. Good old L—L—his name started with an L anyway. She just couldn't remember it in this universe...

 

“Having trouble, sister? Need a doctor?” barked The Duck. “Hey, doc! Dr. Draugiz! Get over here!”

 

A dark shape rose from the corner; he seemed to be a witch, this man who stumbled towards them. Green skin, warty nose, yellow eyes, black robes, a pointy hat—and a sinister laugh. Bad Faith, the ex-Vietnam vet they'd been traveling with, seemed to recognize her. He produced the stick that he claimed (when he was high) was a magic wand. Someday Pretty Mary'd know the secret of that little stick. Did it have something to do with a buddy of his killed, Crab, who'd been rubbed out in a Charlie napalm blast?

 

Shit. This bud was tasty. She wanted more, but offered it to Flower, first. She was starting to remember her old memories—and she was remembering that she _had_ old memories. The weed was making it easier to remember, actually. But it was hard to tell now if that strange, shimmering old world was in fact an illusion, or if this churning peyote space that surrounded her was the fake.

 

There was a strange malevolence to it, but she could have just been paranoid off her buzz. Her lips couldn't stay closed. “Guys, the Machine is trying to kill us!”

 

“Same as always. Same as it always was, Mary, even in our original world,” hissed Flower.

 

“What Machine is trying to kill you, sister?” asked Dr. Draugiz, suddenly female. “...have I met you before, Bloody Mary?”

 

“Pretty Mary,” she corrected, even as she felt the blood-tears flow again. “I-I'm not B-Bloody Mary...right? That's what I mean, that it's trying to kill us. It's trying to kill our souls...”

 

“It's the Vulture's machine,” Bad Faith put in then. “Some sort of reality modulator...I don't know if that's the right term but thanks to these awful drugs it's what comes to mind.”

 

“You was never cut out for psychedelics, Bad Faith,” Flower said.

 

“A Universe-Bender, it sounds like,” green-skinned Draugiz said. “A Miracle Machine. Those can be tricky. But if you got the right vibes, you can float against the Machine's actions. I have the right vibes. I can sense that you, Mary, and you, Lee, you're pretty groovy with this stuff. But Murtlock there is a smarmy little rich tightass.”

 

Murtlock said nothing, choosing instead to mentally muscle through his bad trip.

 

“I'll get you out of here, but what will you give me in return?” Draugiz asked. “Mary—I can see you have a few years of traveling solo after parting ways with Thunderbolt and Lightnin' Bill. Do you mind if I retroactively insert myself into your timeline, so we could share three or four adventures together?”

 

“I think that's already part of my memory...William.” And she stared at the face which was just now becoming familiar. Three adventures—only the middle one formed in her mind. Something about a Space Dragon...?

 

“I guess that means you go no matter what!”

 

The green-skinned doctor raised his hand the three began to disappear again. The Duck only stared at them and laughed, and swallowed another handful of pills. “It was good to see you again, Doctor,” Bloody Mary said. “Look me up in the '70s!”

 

“Done and done,” she replied.

 

When they were gone The Duck was so high he had no idea if they were really there at all.

 

 

WORLD 4 –

575

 

 

Bloody Mary saw

this was a world of haikus;

no mass, only words.

 

“What the fuck,” said Lee.

“Mary, I have no body.

How do we escape?”

 

“Haiku is a form

of subtlety and style,”

said Murtlock, hopeful.

 

“That means it will let

us go soon, right?” He shuddered;

they were all gone then.

 

 

 

WORLD 5 –

MIRROR, MIRROR, ON THE WALL

 

 

Bloody Mary woke up in the Mirror-Realm.

 

She counted out the syllables. Good, that wouldn't fit to a traditional haiku. She felt like she was going to start vomiting living poetry any time now.

 

The mirror-energies restored her; she felt the sleek shimmer of glass again. And just like that, Karnation Lee and Baddefayth Murtlock were there with her. Karnation was smoking in the Realm again, just like she'd told him not to.

 

“Y'know, I haven't really gotten to do anything technological on this caper,” he remarked flatly. “I feel a little third-wheely, dig?”

 

“Don't blame it on me,” said Murtlock. He raised his wand. “Lumos.” There was a bright light that came from his wand, but it did nothing to split the darkness of the Realm.

 

Mary looked around now, feeling her essence knit with the void around her. It was very much like two lines of thread being bound together. But something happened. The twist was wrong.

 

“Ow!”

 

“What's wrong, Mary?” Lee asked.

 

“This isn't my Realm.”

 

She withdrew herself from the fabric of the dimension around them, but felt it tug at her a little bit. As if it wanted her to stay. But through it, she heard voices trickling through the mirrors, like the ones that called her name three times to summon her for help. Except it was a different name than hers. Three syllables. She could barely make it out.

 

“Then whose is it?”

 

“I don't know.”

 

“Mary, who could have possession of the Mirror-Realm?”

 

She looked around. This Realm was somehow quieter than hers, and hers was silent.

 

“A version of the Mary avatar from another timeline. Someone with a more violent approach. Sort of like my enemy Typhoid Mary, who had a version of my powers.”

 

Subtle images appeared in the corner of her eye. Specifically the gleam of a silver hook.

 

“And I think they're just as sinister as she was,” she whispered. “We should get out of here. I'll call a mirror.”

 

“Yes, let's go,” Murtlock said uneasily.

 

Now Bloody Mary could hear the name being whispered through the mirrors, from innocuous teenage parties that were about to get a lot scarier than their participants imagined. “Candyman.”

 

The mirror couldn't have come fast enough. Once Mary knew the name of the one who ruled this place she felt a strange sweat come over her, though she had the form of a spirit. But to her this was like waking up in shark-infested waters. With blood leaking out.

 

She swore the hook swatted as them as they plunged through into the mirror.

 

 

WORLD 6 –

FALLEN ORIGIN

 

 

After the pro wrestling world, the pirate world, the film noir world, the sports movie world, the Amazon cannibal world, and the Gothic bodice-ripper world, the trio found themselves in a dusty stone passageway.

 

“Listen, Mary, I like goin' around places with you, but I hope this ends soon,” Lee said. “I suspect the machine'll burn out soon but I don't know if that means we'll be trapped.”

 

“Yeah, I hope it ends too. Let's just find out where we are for now,” B'loody Mary said.

 

Now Murtlock was staring at Mary, before turning to look at the walls around them.

 

“Granger?!”

 

“What?” Mary said. “My name's not Granger. It's B'loody Mary.” Then she paused. Something was wrong with how she said that.

 

Buh-Loody Mary?

 

“No, look at yourself, your appearance has changed! You look just like Granger now!”

 

“He's right, Mary—it's weird. I didn't even notice, but you've got a different face shape now. And I thought you'd always looked like that.”

 

“Well, that's not the only odd thing,” Murtlock said. “I know this place. This is that school I went to.”

 

“Ah,” Mary said. “Lee, from what I've heard, don't expect any tech to work here.”

 

“This is ridiculous,” said Murtlock, but what exactly he meant, Mary didn't know. “Absolutely ridiculous! I'm gonna go hang out with Enoby!!!”

 

B'loody Mary Smith wondered why he'd said that last part so loudly. “Wait, who's Enoby?” she asked.

 

“You prep I dint SAY Enoby! I said EBONY!!”

 

Mary felt a twitch of pain in her neck. Where it came from, she had no idea. Murtlock stormed off, suddenly wearing what looked to Mary to be an English school uniform. Dark in color, like the clothes he'd worn throughout all his incarnations.

 

“Ohhh, man, I have the feelin' this is gonna be the worst one yet,” Lee said. “Mary, if we're in Murtlock's magic school...I need to know the rest about his type of wizard. Where did they come from?”

 

“I don't know everything,” Mary said, in actuality quite certain now that she knew nothing. “But I know there's a certain association with the wizarding world and the mythical Phoenix. There's a wizarding family which has its own special links to the bird. Supposedly there's a connection between the Phoenix as a wizard symbol and the Phoenix Force, a psychic energy generated by telepathic Oddian mutants. Indeed Oddians were known in ancient times as 'Witchbreed.' However, some legends suggest that the magic of the wizards is descended from that used by the ancient vampires, the forebears of Dracula. They inspired an ideal of 'blood-purity,' using human slaves with magical potential as feeding stock; when their slaves escaped they twisted the concept of blood-purity to their benefit, instead believing that possessing magical blood made them superior. Some of these wizards still worshiped the vampires in the shadows, and out of respect for Dracula, once he'd made a name for himself, they adopted the name 'Draco' into their lists of common baby names.”

 

Then, as if on cue, there came a feminine voice from around the corner: “Draco! Draco!! Draco!!!”

 

“What the hell's going on?” Lee asked. “It's sounds like someone's gettin'...”

 

“Come on,” Mary urged. She led him by the hand to the doorway through which Murtlock had vanished.

 

Murtlock was just on the other side—and so was a girl. She had a very unusual appearance to Mary. Her hair was a mess of scarlet, purple, and black; she wore a black set of garments which barely covered her body, and were quite dissimilar to the uniform Murtlock now only partially dressed himself in. Sure enough, based on their body language, and the tang of sweat in the air, alongside the sensual grunts, it was clear that Lee was correct: someone was “gettin'.”

 

“What the fuck are you doing!! Get out of here!!!” Draco yelled. Mary blinked. Her mind told her Murtlock, when she looked at the man she'd just called Draco. But she had called him Draco all the same.

 

“What the fuck are _you_ doing?” Mary barked. “Mr. Murtlock, we're under the effect of that machine! Stop having _relations_ with this...young woman, and help us get back home.”

 

“Draco is home tho,” said the woman, flashing a sudden glimpse at elongated canines. “This whrere he's meant to be!! Leave us oalne you sick prep mutherfukkers!!!”

 

“Is she speaking English, Mary?” Lee asked.

 

Suddenly Draco n Enoby wren't having sex anymore. Ebony flashed a smile at B'loody Mary Smith. “Oh hai gurl you look so kawai today”

 

“Mary! Something's happening!” Lee shouted, sweat breaking out on his brow. “I-I can feel grammar melting. Like grammar is like an extra taste in my mouth and I feel it getting all garbled and mixed up...”

 

“Who are you?” B'loody Mary asked.

 

“My name Is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way.”

 

As if those words signaled something, Mary, too, could feel the strange sensation of affected grammar. It was like this universe was primarily magical in nature—built up on its base level not of quantum foam, but of a grammatical incantation slurry which projected a tangible reality. And yet this woman had the ability to corrupt that slurry, and in doing so, bend reality itself.

 

Indeed, Mary found herself profoundly sexually attracted to this woman. As if compelled to feel such.

 

Mary looked over at Lee, hoping to calm him. But now, suddenly, he looked quite different. His eyes were blood-red, and bloody tears poured free from them. Vampire fangs protruded from his mouth, and he wore black instead of white with a black carnation.

 

“Sorry Mary but I think she got too me lol,” Lee sed. “now i'm startin to feel like a parta this universe hohoho an a bottle of rum!!”

 

“What the...? Karnation Lee is not a pirate!” Mary roared. “I may have said he had the _spirit_ of one, especially in that pirate dimension, but why would he say 'Ho ho ho, and a bottle of rum'?”

 

“i Dunno but if youre thinkin of flaming then GET DA FUK OUTTA HERE!!!!!!” Ebony shouted then.

 

“Karnation Lee is a time and space traveler,” Mary said, trying to override Ebony's will as she twisted the cosmos around them. “He was named for a certain Sisterhood on an alien world, who practice immortality. He's a hero. He's not this flimsy mirage of a human.”

 

“But Mary you cant fight our rules!” exclamed Kranantion Lee, who now called himself Violencse Lee because he was a vmapire now. “We keep goin for so long and theres no paypff. What the fuck!!”

 

“We'll get out of this, Lee, I promise,” said B'loody Mary Smith. “You. Ebony. What's your story?”

 

“I am the one who killed tha Dark Lord Vlodemort,” Ebony sed. “I gess you could gall the Girl Who Lived lol”

 

“lol that's so kawaii” Mary said then. But she shook her head. “No. No, I'm not gonna give into this. I _will_ find out your story.”

 

“There's nothing to me aside from what ive got. And its better than what u got goin on you stupid preppy bitch!!”

 

“Lee, talk to me. She doesn't have you fully yet.”

 

“mary,” Le said. “she's not human, she's like a living powercore! Somehow dis fuckked up place hasmsomethin to do wiff the Machine!!”

 

“now you used ta be called Hormone Gragner, now you're just B'loody Mary smiff. Hurry is now Vampire and ron is now called Diabolo. As fer me and draco were all sexy and make out with eachother and stuff”

 

“That's that, huh? You and Draco are all sexy and make out with each other and stuff?”

 

“That's it yeah you gotta problem you flammin prep fuck?”

 

B'loody Mary raised her talons, which she had kept despite the changes to her body. She hoped she'd revert back to normal once she got them out of here.

 

She leaned forward, till her hand was near to Ebony. She prodded her claws outward, until it bent and punctured the surface of reality.

 

“What the fuck are you fuccing doing?!?!?!” Ebony sceemed. “You can't take me outta here? What will happen to Vampire and professor Sinistar and Dumbeldore and Hagird?”

 

“I don't know if you're someone from our universe, or a machine, or whatever,” Mary said. “But you're getting out of here. Out!”

 

It didn't take long to cut an outline around Ebony, and Mary took up her shoulders in her hands. The disturbingly-attractive young woman tried one last time to bring her low, as she'd brought Murtlock low, and Lee. But “Violence” Lee was starting to break free, as Mary broke Ebony out of the fabric of this feeble, twisted universe. She knew she couldn't do this anywhere else; the name in her head, “B'loody Mary Smith,” was changing now, as if rewritten by an author outside reality. Instead she was Bloody Mary Sue.

 

Whatever. It worked.

 

One last tug, and she wrenched the girl free. As this happened, she felt a hand—her hand—grip around the core of some unknown shape, fixed hard by an invisible frame. But under her strength, the frame snapped and broke, and they were all free.

 

 

WORLD 7 –

HOME (WORLD 1)

 

 

The Universe Bender sparked and smoked. Its internal circuits were disintegrating due to feedback from its core; the core released a pulse of energy when Bloody Mary tore it out. But now, Dr. Koniglich's lab was around them again—and there was a strange feeling of normalcy that made them feel as if they had truly returned home. Murtlock was reeling from how it had really felt like he had returned to Hogwarts after all these years. But it was an illusion—and he had betrayed his wife.

 

At his feet was the perpetrator. Or, some semblance of her.

 

She was more sensibly dressed—she looked like she'd be warmer, as least. She looked to be wearing dark jeans, a short black jacket, and a plain black T-shirt. Her hair lacked the dye it had possessed in that other world, being now merely jet-black. She stirred slowly. And as she rose, she moved herself away from the others. Mary, however, had sympathy for what she saw in her.

 

“We're not going to hurt you,” she said. “You were...trapped inside that thing?”

“I was,” the girl said. “I don't know long I was in there. It felt like eternity. The Machine had been programmed to draw on my powers while also dampening my intelligence—resulting in that personality of mine you observed. Put that inside a virtual realm that can be reprogrammed by thought and you've got a recipe for disaster.”

 

“Who are you? Who put you in there?”

 

“My name is Raven Reál. I sometimes go by the name Lilith Clay. My mother was a descendant of the criminal known as Colonel Clay, who had been involved with the case of the Red-Headed League. I met my cousin Johnny a few months ago, when he came over to Britain. Old Johnny Clay had been in Shawshank prison for stealing two million dollars from a horse-racing track.”

 

“I've heard of those cases, and I'm interested in all of them,” Mary confessed.

 

“My father was Hans Koniglich. I was born with psychic abilities, though I'm not an Oddian mutant. When he got his hands on the Miracle Machine, he implanted me in it to make it stronger. But he mostly just used it as a teleporter, to try and steal treasure.”

 

“Greedy people are rarely creative when it comes to things besides money,” Mary said. “Raven...who is your father? I mean, like, as a person? How did all of this end up happening?”

 

“My father was obsessed with Francis Reál, our ancestor,” Raven explained. “In truth, Reál was an avatar of a supernatural entity known as Asmodeus—also known as 'the Devil on Two Sticks.' He was summoned to Earth by the grandmother of the sorcerer known as Rinaldo Sabata, and a union between her and the demon resulted in the birth of Sabata's father. A few months ago, a group of young Americans had an encounter with Asmodeus, who had disguised himself as a park ranger to acquire a magical book. Sensing his defeat, my father realized he had a chance to draw Asmodeus' power into himself. Becoming an avatar of Asmodeus gave him the idea to use my power. But he and Asmodeus' minds were at war inside his body. He is dead now—I feel it. He was killed by Brian Stroud's nephew.”

 

“But not before Brian and his brother got killed by your dad,” Lee said.

 

“Unfortunately they are dead, it is true. But through their niece, the Strouds will live on.”

 

“You made me cheat on my wife! On my Astoria!” Baddefayth Murtlock shouted then. “You and I—Raven Reál—we had sex in one of those worlds!”

 

“No. Draco Malfoy had sex with Ebony Way. It's different.”

 

“But _I'm_ Draco—”

 

“You don't need to say anything further, Mr. Murtlock,” Raven said. “As my radiations carried you through the dimensions, you took on different bodies. In that virtual world, the last layer you visited, your real bodies observed the actions of B'loody Mary Smith, Draco Malfoy, and Violence Lee. They were extensions of your senses, but they were not you.”

 

Murtlock was about to continue, but Lee said, “I still can't believe that name, by the way. Violence Lee. Jesus.” He coughed. “So, it's over then? History goes on as I remember—because you're right, Eric did shoot Koniglich.”

 

“My father was a demon,” Raven said. “It's good that he's dead. And his machine with him.”

 

Lee inspected the device now. “I don't think it's fully broken. I think there's hope for this little engine yet.” But then he looked at Mary. “Not in the 20th Century, though. I'm gonna take it out to the 28th, Mary—there I'll entrust it to a scientist family I know, the Ensors.”

 

“I trust you, Lee,” Mary said, somewhat inauthentically. “Mr. Murtlock. You are from our future. Would you like it to be Lee that returns you home, or myself?”

 

“No, I need to travel alone, in this era,” Murtlock said. “I need to find my son. My Scorpius.”

 

“I understand.”

 

But there was a dark look in Murtlock's eyes. Every so often he'd glance over at Raven Reál, as if expecting her to make some sort of move on him. He seemed eager to have a chance to attack her. Instead, he just spun around to where he'd spotted a door, and exited the lab.

 

Bloody Mary looked over at Lee and Reál then. “So it's over,” she said. “We solved the mystery of the Vulture.”

 

“Yep,” said Lee, slinging the burnt-out Miracle Machine under his arm. “Though we already kinda knew how it would turn out.”

 

“Where are you going to go, Raven?” Mary asked.

 

The dark-haired girl only grinned. Mary thought she must have been a witch, to have dwelled in a fractional version of that magical school. A _psychic_ witch was two good things in one.

 

She spoke the words both Mary and Lee hoped she'd say. “Do you mind if I come with you?”

 

\---

 

Dedicated to Karnation Lee

 

May he find in death the peace he lacked in life.

 

4030 – 1969

 

 


End file.
